Wedding Series: Creating the
Perfect Program for my Perfect Day

 

Guest Blogger Alissa Cantrell is the managing director of communications and events at FedEx Office. She has been with the company for almost eight years and planned her own fairytale wedding in just three months last summer. When she learned of the Out of Office Wedding Series, she was more than happy to share her personal story.

I’ve never been one of those girls who had my wedding planned before I actually met “the one.” But a funny thing happened last May when my husband proposed… We knew what our plan was within about 24 hours! We wanted to keep it simple, get married somewhere with character, and make sure everything was elegant and reflected our tastes. To top it all off, we wanted to get married by the end of the summer so that my fiancé’s brother and his wife (who were expecting their first child in October) could attend.

Thanks to my mom and my loving and patient husband, we had all of the major stuff done by mid-June – dress, location, invitations, photographer, cake, flowers and music – which left us with just a few last-minute things to take care of, like our programs.

In college, I was an editor for the school paper and had the fun task (seriously, I loved it!) of designing the entertainment section each day. Although it doesn’t take an expert to create your own program, I was proudly able to put my design experience to use for the important project.

To start with, I had to decide on a layout. I used samples my mom had collected over the years and our invitations for my muse. Once I had an idea of what I wanted to do, I used Microsoft PowerPoint to create a customized size and a style (not necessarily a layout) that was consistent with the invitations. (Why PowerPoint you may ask? It allowed me more flexibility to invert the text boxes for the final layout than any other program I had access to at the time.)

From there, we wrote the program in our own words, even adding a letter to our guests on the back. Once we added the finishing touches and re-read it to make sure there weren’t any mistakes, we took the final file to our neighborhood FedEx Office to print, cut (to our customized 5” x 5” size), fold and punch holes for a nice ribbon at the top. My mom and I inserted and tied the ribbons the day before the wedding as part of our final checklist of activities.

The wedding went off without a hitch, the programs were perfect, and my husband and I are now living happily ever after… something I hope all of you will do too!

If you’re designing your own program, consider using my template or check out different options available online through wedding-related Web sites to get you started. But whatever you do, make it your own! 

 
 
 
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Comments

I'm really glad your wedding

I'm really glad your wedding went off without a hitch, and I have to say I'm impressed with how quick you did it. My own wedding is happening in October of next year, so I have a lot to things to plan for. Here's my question though; do you recommend making your own wedding programs, or do you recommend having a professional do them?
 

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